Choice Planning NOFA Announced

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the availability of $3.6 million dollars for Choice Neighborhood Planning Grants. As we’ve mentioned previously on our blog, the goal of the ground-breaking Choice Neighborhoods Initiative is to transform communities experiencing extreme poverty, violence and unemployment into sustainable, mixed-income neighborhoods with quality services, good schools, affordable housing and access to jobs and transit. Eligible applicants are public housing authorities, local governments, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit developers that apply jointly with a public entity.

We posted previously that for FY 2010, 119 applications were submitted for Choice Neighborhood Planning Grants and 89 for Implementation Grants. Seventeen communities across the country received $4 million in Choice Planning Grant funding and six other communities were selected as finalists to compete for approximately $61 million in Choice Neighborhood Implementation grants. The final grantees should be announced in the upcoming months.


As with the FY 2010, in the current notice, HUD states that it will set aside four Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grants for those that received a Promise Neighborhoods Planning Grant from the Department of Education’s Promise Neighborhoods program for the same target neighborhood. This applies both if you are the lead organization that directly received the planning grant or a partner that has a written MOU with Promise Neighborhoods Planning Grant recipient indicating your commitment.

Applicants have until August 8, 2011 to apply for the FY 2011 Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grants. HUD anticipates awarding approximately 12 grants with a maximum award of $300,000 each. The full NOFA can be accessed here.